Wotton-under-Edge teenager to be remembered at vigil after fatal collision at accident blackspot

6:02am Tuesday 31st December 2013

A TEENAGER from Wotton-under-Edge has died after his car collided with a van on an accident blackspot just outside the town.

Rory Evans, 18, died at the scene of the accident, which happened just before 1.30pm on Friday, December 27, on the B4058 Wotton Road, between Wotton and Charfield.

The former Katharine Lady Berkeley’s School pupil from Tabernacle Road was driving a silver-grey Toyota Roadster MR2 when it was involved in a collision with a white Nissan van on a bend of the road.

Emergency services were called and Gloucestershire Police closed off the road between Station Road and the B4060 Wotton Road at the Renishaw roundabout while paramedics and firefighters tended to the victims.

A Gloucestershire Police spokesman said the van driver, a 49-year-old man from Wotton-under-Edge, sustained an injury to his torso while his female passenger received leg injuries and was taken to hospital. Neither injury was deemed live-changing.

The age of the woman was not reported.

A spokeswoman for the South Western Ambulance Service Trust said they had received a 999 call at 1.28pm reporting a two-vehicle collision.

“We sent a paramedic in a rapid-response vehicle, an ambulance and an officer to the scene,” she said.

“One male patient was unfortunately deceased at the scene. The second patient was a female who was complaining of chest pain and was taken to Frenchay Hospital for further assessment.”

Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service sent crews from Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge Fire Station to the scene but the vans occupants were released before they arrived.

Flowers have been left a the scene of the fatal accident and a candlelight vigil is to be held at St Mary’s Church in Wotton-under-Edge for Mr Evans on Thursday, January 2 from 7pm to 9pm for people to meet and remember the young man and sign a book of condolence.

Nearby resident and owner of Wotton Animal Rescue Veronica Bruce, 66, has been leading a petition to reduce the speed limit on the road from its current 50mph limit to 30mph and had gathered 500 signatures by July this year.

At the time Gloucestershire County Council’s (GCC) local highways manager Richard Gray said the road did not “justify” a speed limit reduction as it did not have a “significant accident record”.

But Ms Bruce says she has now witnessed six serious accidents on the stretch of road since May, and is furious that GCC did not act on the petition.

“I was so angry when I heard the news. How many people need to be killed before they will do something about it? What price are they putting on it?" she said.

“If they were here one month they would see a lot of accidents.”

A spokesman for Gloucestershire County Council said: “Our sympathies are with all of those affected by this tragic incident.

“We constantly review county hotspots based on accident information, but it would be inappropriate to comment while the police are carrying out an investigation to determine what happened.”

Anyone who witnessed the accident but has not spoken to police should call 101 and quote incident 267 of December 27.